Will the jury really fix this? The county is offering $200K when their own property tax assessors say it’s worth $600K.

I’ve heard an interesting thought for eminent domain. Rather than the county assessing your property’s value for tax purposes, you assess it yourself. Whatever value you assess, that’s what you pay taxes on, but that’s also what value the state has to pay you if they want your property for eminent domain purposes.

I.e. it’s a simple way of buying “insurance” against eminent domain, because if you overvalue your property, you’ll be paying more in taxes but less likely to get your property ripped out from underneath you.

]]>By: Larryhttp://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/02/05/unjust-compensation/#comment-12869
Sat, 24 Feb 2007 10:15:09 +0000http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/02/05/unjust-compensation/#comment-12869No way. Just compensation for a taking is fair market value. That’s determined by a jury after hearing evidence from all sides, but especially from appraisers hired by both the government and the property owner and occasionally even by the court. If the county is offering only one third of a property’s value, the jury will at trial no doubt take the county to task for its high-handedness. And in some states, the government would be penalized as well by being required to pay generous attorneys fees.
]]>By: A Second Hand Conjecture » The Petty Lords Stealhttp://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/02/05/unjust-compensation/#comment-10760
Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:16:20 +0000http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/02/05/unjust-compensation/#comment-10760[…] to Doug Mataconis for the pointer. Update: He has a second post here. Technorati Tags: Eminent Domain, Virginia, […]
]]>By: Brad Warbianyhttp://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/02/05/unjust-compensation/#comment-10733
Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:28:03 +0000http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/02/05/unjust-compensation/#comment-10733They did the same thing after Kelo. When the Kelo folks started fighting their seizure, they were told that they might have to pay the city back rent for their stay during the fight because the city “already owned the properties”. I don’t know if New London backed off when that came to light, but after they won the court case, they were trying to force the residents to pay them rent for living on city property…

And yes, it is most certainly disgusting. You only own property at the pleasure of the legislature, and they’ll take it right away when they get a better offer.